Dangote refinery extends free fuel delivery to four more states
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery said it has expanded its free delivery programme to Kano, Imo, Anambra and Nasarawa states, allowing independent marketers to receive products without paying haulage costs from the plant.
The initiative previously covered Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Kaduna, Abuja and Delta. By bearing the expense of moving fuel to buyers, the refinery removes a major logistics cost from the downstream distribution chain.
Fatima Aliko Dangote, Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations at Dangote Industries Limited, said the move is meant to ensure that the advantages of local refining reach more than just the refinery itself.
“The value of domestic refining must ultimately be felt beyond the refinery gate,” she said. “By absorbing the cost of delivering petroleum products to our customers, we are removing a significant component of the distribution burden and creating room for those savings to flow through the value chain to consumers. Our goal is to make fuel distribution more efficient, reduce avoidable costs and support more competitive pump prices across Nigeria.”
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria welcomed the expansion. IPMAN spokesman Chinedu Ukadike said the arrangement addresses a long-running problem in which marketers pay for products but sometimes wait days or weeks before loading.
“This gesture, if sustained, will be able to alleviate the sufferings of independent marketers,” he said. “There has been the issue of financial hold-up, whereby marketers pay for products and are not loaded for days and weeks, and they suffer unnecessary hardship bringing the product down.”
He said faster delivery reduces the time marketers’ money stays locked up, improves cash flow and lets businesses use their capital more efficiently.
The refinery noted that savings are especially important for buyers far from the plant, where haulage, driver wages, insurance and road risks add to costs. Lowering those expenses could improve the economics of supplying distant markets and allow marketers to compete better on retail prices.
The expansion comes as Nigeria’s downstream petroleum industry adapts to growing domestic refining capacity. The 700,000-barrel-per-day Dangote refinery continues to supply the local market while expanding its international footprint.